It hit him then. Hard. Sweet, hot and so d.a.m.ned tempting he could barely stand it. Her l.u.s.t was a palatable thing; he could almost taste it on the air around her.
He lifted her arm, his fingers running over the soft skin. d.a.m.n, that lotion was worth every penny he had paid over the years. Her skin was soft as satin, with a healthy, glowing sheen. It was warm, the feel of it unlike anything he had ever known.
"You keep rubbing them." He cleared his throat, unable to release her.
She pulled away from him, rubbed her hand over it again before allowing her arm to fall to her side.
"Restless, I guess. I need to get home," she announced, almost desperate now. "There are things I need to do there. I really don"t have a week to spend here, Jacob."
"Things that can be taken care of until your return," he a.s.sured her, watching her breathing escalate until she moved carefully away from him. "No one will invade your home, Faith. I promise you that."
She pushed her fingers through the short strands of her hair. Jacob admitted he liked her hair shorter. Liked the way it framed her face, the layered strands framing her elfin features perfectly. It did nothing to detract from her appearance of delicacy, though.
"Why are you forcing me to stay here?" she asked him, her earlier irritation threatening to return. "Why didn"t Wolfe order you home? Why not come to me?"
"It"s just a week, Faith," he reminded her. "We"ve been apart six years. Wasted years, I"m starting to suspect. Give us this time to get to know one another again."
He watched as she drew a deep breath. She turned her gaze from him, her lips moist and tempting as she ran her tongue over them nervously.
"I need clothes," she told him firmly as she moved to the large recessed bookshelf on the other side of the room. "Hawke was nice enough to have lost my pack nearly a week ago. What changes of clothes I had were in his pack. You sent him away."
Clothes were a must, but something easily taken care of, he thought.
"I"ll take care of it," he promised her. "Anything else you need?"
She sighed again. "Lotion, but there"s not a hope in h.e.l.l of my brand being here. I could kill Hawke for losing my pack. Should have known better than to trust him."
Jacob frowned. She seemed melancholy. Was this one of the mood swings Wolfe had talked about? d.a.m.n, she was wearing him out.
"I believe I saw several different brands in the cupboard, in the bathrooms." He shrugged. He knew her brand was there. Caleb"s sister also preferred it. "Check there when you shower tonight and see what"s available. My friend uses the house for meetings and large get-togethers when he"s here, so I"m certain there"s something there for everyone."
She turned around. Her eyes broke his heart. They were somber, sad.
"Faith?" he moved slowly toward her. "Can"t you tell me what"s wrong?"
A bitter smile shaped her lips as her hand ran over her neck, down her arm. She seemed to want to shiver, but held back the action.
"I waited six years for you," she told him softly. "Six long years, Jacob. And I guess I"m just now realizing what a fool I"ve been. How many women have you been with while I waited, Mate? How many times have you f.u.c.ked another woman while I waited for you like a fool?
Jacob wondered if the truth would surprise her. True, he had decided the night she had shown up at the bar that he was tired of waiting. Tired of wishing he was different, that she wasn"t as soft, as delicate as she was, and had decided a night of raunchy s.e.x was the cure. But honestly, in six years, there had been no other women.
When they escaped the Labs, the males had already gotten their fill of the emptiness involved in s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g just for the pleasure of those who watched, or even for the need to "get off" as the case may be.
From early manhood to adulthood, s.e.x had been a daily diet in his life. Not having to worry about it had been a relief. Until he had seen Faith again. Until the sharp, bitter bite of l.u.s.t had gotten its hold into him.
"Would you believe me if I said there had been no other women?" he asked her softly.
Her eyes widened. "Is that what you"re saying?"
There was a spark of hope in her gaze, a flash of fear.
"h.e.l.l, Faith, you remember what the Labs were like," he growled, running his fingers impatiently through his hair. "It was years before I got the stink of that place out of my head. s.e.x was a d.a.m.ned training exercise, like f.u.c.king pushups. h.e.l.l no, there haven"t been other women. There hasn"t been time. I"m too d.a.m.ned busy fighting and finding the h.e.l.lholes those scientists call Labs. Who has time to f.u.c.k?"
He knew it was his own guilt for the plans he had the night before that caused his ire. But dammit, it was her fault too. She had gone from a raging woman bent on breaking bones, to a woman so soft, so fragile, that her dreams whispered through the air around her. Like a d.a.m.ned fairytale princess. How did you f.u.c.k a fairy princess? He wanted her hot and sweaty, slick and wet and begging him to fill her. Princesses weren"t supposed to do that. Were they?
"I remember many things about the Labs." Her lips thinned as she shrugged tightly. "I"m tired. I"m going to bed."
"Not yet, Faith." Impatience warred with desire as he moved to stop her. He wasn"t about to let her leave like this.
He caught her as she made to walk from the room, his arm curling around her waist as he turned her, pressing her tense body against the wall beside the doorframe as she stared up at him in startled surprise. Her hands braced against his broad chest, her slender, graceful fingers trembling over the cover of his shirt.
"There are things I remember as well," he told her, surprised at the rough quality of his voice. "Things that awaken me in the deepest parts of the night, my c.o.c.k throbbing. Demanding my mate. If I was wrong about your need to grow first, then I can accept this. But I will not allow you to hate me for my need to protect you."
"Where have you protected me, Jacob?" she bit out, though he could feel her body softening, smell her desire for him growing. "I"ve needed you. Needed to be with you, and you never came for me. Never called for me to come to you. I would not be here now had Wolfe not demanded it."
"But you are here." His fingers tangled in her short hair as he pulled her head back demandingly. "And I"ll be d.a.m.ned if I"ll let you leave."
l.u.s.t, thick and hot swirled in the air around him. The scent of her sweet, female need was like an aphrodisiac, driving him mad. Jacob"s lips covered hers, his tongue pushing into her mouth to claim the velvety depths demandingly. She moaned against him. A whimpering, needy sound that made his body flame.
He felt her body conform to him, so delicate and small, as her hands gripped his shoulders, her nails biting through cloth, p.r.i.c.king at his skin. Fire arched from nerve ending to nerve ending in Jacob"s body as he pulled her closer to him, his lips devouring her. He couldn"t get enough of her. Her sweet taste, her heated pa.s.sion.
Her lips were satin fire, her tongue a jolt of electricity, and when her lips closed on him, drawing on his tongue, easing the throb in the thickening glands along its side, he nearly came in his jeans. His c.o.c.k pulsed, throbbed, until he gripped her hips, lifting her closer to wedge the hard length against the heated mound of her c.u.n.t.
He braced her between the door and his body, his hips pressing into her, flexing, stroking the sensitive, jeans covered folds of her p.u.s.s.y. He wanted to rip her pants from her body, lift her closer and push hard and deep into the fiery channel that awaited him. He wanted to devour her. Ravage her. He wanted his lips and hands on every part of her body at once.
"d.a.m.n you," he cursed as he jerked back, tearing his lips from hers only to move them along her cheek, her neck. "You"re like fire, Faith. Fire and lightning and you"re burning me alive."
They were both gasping for air now, straining together, loins grinding into each other.
"Jacob." The sound of her tremulous voice, fraught with equal parts fear and desire, whipped through his body with a surge of sensation that left him fighting for air.
He could feel his muscles trembling as he fought to control himself, felt his need for her reaching a peak he had never known existed. She was hot and sweet, and his. His mate. His woman.
Jacob allowed his lips to move with quick, ravenous kisses and strokes of his tongue along her neck, dipping under the neckline of her shirt as she strained against him. He loved the way her body arched to him, her neck tilting, giving him better access, her b.r.e.a.s.t.s flattening against his chest as she fought for breath. He could feel the hard points of her nipples burning into his flesh, making his mouth water to taste them.
One hand moved from her hips as he tore the shirt from the waistband of her pants. His hand moved beneath the cloth, stroking over skin so soft, so fine that he shuddered in awe.
"I want you," he growled into her neck as his hand smoothed around her side, his fingers glancing the curve of her swollen breast, his lips aching to stroke it in turn. "I want you now, Faith."
He heard her whimper, felt her as she tensed, striving for control. Her hands gripped his shoulders tightly, her breath shuddered through her body.
"Now," he whispered again. "You"re mine. You know this as well as I do. Mine, Faith."
He didn"t expect her to tear away from him. Didn"t expect the surge of strength that would give her the impetus needed to jerk from his arms, stumbling weakly as she put several feet between them.
Jacob"s eyes narrowed, his fists clenching as he watched the swollen, hard-tipped mounds of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s moving rapidly beneath her thin shirt.
"Why now?" she cried out, her dark eyes glittering with emotion. "Why do you want me now, when you haven"t in six years?"